William is 21 Months!
Many little milestones have happened this month. William is only 2 molars away from being completely done with teething..yay! He also has been more into spicy foods like tapatio and tajin, but obviously very tiny amounts.
We fully dropped the pacifier, which he only had ever really used to take naps or sleep with, but still, I'm glad it's no longer in the picture. I'm trying to get as many of the "tough transitions" out of the way before the really big one happens in a couple of weeks.
He's attempting, and lately succeeding with Garrett's help, to do some tumbles. It's pretty cute.
He can also now point to his nose, hair, head, belly, knees, toes, fingers etc. He loves when they ask everyone to point to these at MyGym.
Lastly, he's shown signs of being a bit of a jealous little guy for a couple of months now, which I find funny. At first it was mostly when he would see Garrett and I hugging....he did not like it. Now, we just pick him up and include him in the hugs and kisses and he doesn't mind as much. The three of us recently went to an OB appointment together and he WAS NOT LIKING when the doctor was looking for the baby's heartbeat. So W decided to walk around the corner to get an up close and personal look to see what was going on. He would stare the doctor down, like "that's my mom, what exactly are you doing?" We thought it was pretty funny.
First visitors!
Susi and my Parents came to stay for a weekend in February. The pool/guest bathroom and the guest bedroom are officially done:) So come and visit too!
William being a cuddle bug with one of his fave's, Auntie Suz.
He is obsessed with sitting on the bench in the breakfast area.
Making a train out of the kitchen bar stools.
His favorite thing to play with while I put other items away in this room...
Girls weekend in Arizona!
Halona, Sarah and Kim- Some of my friends from high school, organized a really fun girl trip to Scottsdale. It was really great to have a calm and relaxing time, and to catch up with all of them. The resort we stayed in was walking distance to shops, awesome restaurants and had some great fire pits. It also had a complementary wine hour and bicycles... neither of which I could really par-take in, but they did have some yummy non-alcoholic drinks and I had some of the best food at restaurants that Sarah made reservations in! We had such a great time, that we decided to make this a yearly girls trip, with a different destinations every year...yay!
On a side note: I actually flew out of Bakersfield's small, but surprisingly modern airport. They actually flew direct to Phoenix which was about an hour flight, and it was only about a 20 minute drive home to/from the airport to our house. One of the perks of living in a small city I guess.
On a side note: I actually flew out of Bakersfield's small, but surprisingly modern airport. They actually flew direct to Phoenix which was about an hour flight, and it was only about a 20 minute drive home to/from the airport to our house. One of the perks of living in a small city I guess.
I officially gave into the bench obsession after getting back from my trip, and I now have meals sitting next to William. We actually have a fun time together during meals, and I feel like it's a bit more real world, especially if we're eating at a restaurant. It also forces me to sit and eat with him (versus multi-tasking), and he's more interested in trying new foods from what I'm eating now that I'm right next to him.
His favorite area in our master bedroom. He loves sitting there like a big boy.
Gym-time pics: He is obsessed with slides! Obviously still loves the swings, but the slides are now up there too:)
Our local library has a toddler story time every other Friday and we finally made it to one- William really liked it. The stories themselves were a bit long, but he did pretty well overall. After story time was over, they brought out a bunch of toys for everyone to play with, so he was super happy at that point!
It feels like yesterday that we (or I should say Garrett) were painting William's room in our old house in Ripon, grey. Now it's Stella's room; although it feels like this time it was a bit more work. The walls were originally a latte color and the new paint is a pale pink. Poor Garrett spent two weekends with multiple coats and even re-painted (at my pregnancy nesting request) the entire inside of the closet white, and touched up the baseboards. It looks great!
Cuddling up with Daddy aka Dada
Noodles I made out of zucchini, I think some homemade curly fries will be next!
Newport/ Orange County Trip
Garrett had a work trip planned to Newport, and since it's about a 2-3 hour drive (depending on the traffic) from our house, so I decided William and I would tag along too! We had such a fun time, I'm totally glad we went!
He loved the hotel room phone. We had to unplug it so he wouldn't call anyone by accident, but he was obsessed with this thing as soon as we got into the room.
Hanging out with Garrett before his work lunch started, which kicked off all his meetings.
W was loving this little round lumbar pillow too, and was trying to do flips on it.
We were staying right across from fashion island, which might be the nicest outdoor shopping area I've ever been too. William loved all of the fountains, and we even took a trolly ride around the whole thing. I also bought W a vegan cupcake, (because of his allergies to egg and milk) but he wanted nothing to do with it....so guess who ate the whole thing!? At least I'm pregnant, so I couldn't feel too guilty about it :)
I found a children's store that carries bla bla dolls, which one of my friends who lives in the city bought for William before he was born. William has Mr. Racoon, or at least that's what we call him, and it's the perfect little cuddly lovie for babies. So I bought Stella a cream and pink little lamb, we'll probably name her lamby or Mrs. Lamby? We'll see...but they had a table full of cars and William was not going to walk out empty handed. So although I grossly overpaid for both items, (and like other sensible Mothers, don't believe in buying him everything he wants) this time I just felt guilty buying something for his soon-to-be -here sister and nothing for him. So I gave in.
There was also a whole foods in the shopping are, so I bought W and I some lunch from their salad bar and we ate by one of the fountains. I have to say, it was nice and not nearly as stressful as going to a restaurant alone with him. He also got to play with his new car on different fountains.
I feel better when I see W playing with the car set quite a bit till this day!
Hanging at the gorgeous koi pond...
We also got to say hello to Ryan, since the Modesto plant was also attending the Newport meeting. It was fun for him to hang with William and for Garrett to see him too. Garrett was telling me that this has been the longest he's gone without seeing Ryan, and that he "missed the big guy." Ha. It's true, these two had the same college major, joined the same fraternity and worked at the same location for the same company up until recently. So it's totally normal for Garrett to have Ryan withdrawals :)
Later that night we got to meet up with the newlyweds, my cousin Jose Carlos, and his wife Lila. William gave poor JC a run for his money.. He chased him around the pond and a nice little green area too. It was so great to see family and to get to spend some quality time with these two. They met up to have dinner both nights :)
Casual dinner at Lila's recommendation, Lemonade...it was so yummy and healthy.
The next day I took W to a children's museum in Irvine, which was only like a 15 minute drive for our hotel in Newport. It came highly recommended and did not disappoint! William LOVED it!
Fishing and making boats
Gardening
In the "art studio" doing some pipette painting, some stamps and a lot of wall painting.
Grocery shopping
His favorite: The car and lego area....no surprise here.
It was naptime and we had to go, but as you can see here, he was not going without throwing himself to the floor and putting up a fight.
Pregnancy bump pic from our room in the hotel: Week 27 (I love how William makes appearances this time around:)
After his nap, we went back to play some more. I paid like $25 for both of us to get in and I was getting my money's worth! ;)
Playing in the auto repair area
The museum wasn't nearly as busy in the afternoon, since the day cares and field trip groups had all left. So he got to run around a bit more... He loved pushing these cars around the whole place.
The concept is that the children go to these little places and "work" (art studio, grocery, auto zone, gardening, etc.) and get a stamp for their timecards. Then they can take their card to the ATM and get cash to redeem for prizes. It's a great idea, but let's be honest, William's not even two...he could care less about the time card. He just wanted to play and that's what we did.
Picking up his art work on the way out, it was drying...
My cousin Jose works like 2 minutes away from the kids museum! So we got to take a tour of his very cool civil engineering building, and got to check out his very nice office that had many large windows...He's so fancy:) William even got to try on his hard hat! It was really nice to see his work space in person. Jose in the first in the family to earn a degree (and masters) in civil engineering. My grandfather, Jose Antonio was a very well known and respected civil engineer in certain parts of Mexico. So we are all extra proud of Jose and all of his accomplishments. I'm sure he still makes our Grandfather extra-proud too, even from up above:)
Jose and Lila are lucky enough to live in Irvine, so we all met at the Irvine Spectrum for a casual, toddler friendly dinner the second night. The spectrum was so fun! They have a really beautiful merry-go-round, (which the four of us went on,) a cute little train, a ferris wheel and a very cool play ground with astroturf and tarps for shade. Not to mention a great little selection of shops and restaurants.
I have to say, I'd been to Irvine, Newport, Coast Mesa and other cities in the surrounding area for work trips in the past, but I've never been able to take them in the way I did on this trip. I'm sure many things contributed to us having such a great time. Including the fact that we had such great company for dinner on both nights, and that William had such a great time exploring every little thing we did. He was just really fun to travel with and was in an all around good mood for all of our activities. So it was really nice to take-in the Orange County area a little better. I would totally live here, and Garrett agrees!
Hanging at the hotel the next morning.
Looking handsome for our Mommy and Son morning outing...
Breakfast in Balboa Island
We took the car ferry across, which honestly I didn't really love. I think William liked it, but it gave me a bit of anxiety...probably because I'm preggo and just kept thinking the worst!
Drive back home to Bakersfield with his lovies...
Back to reality... and to taking my pregnancy glucose test...yuck.
Weekend 2 of painting Stella's room.
Garrett had a helper this time around. William loved pulling the paint tape off of the walls :)
Cucumbers and tajin...yes please!
We woke up one morning with ducks in our pool! I'm not sure if that's sanitary, but our pool guy service just started this week, so we should be good by the time we actually want to get in and start using it. William, by the way, thought it was awesome and wouldn't step away from the windows!
Trying out a new vegan oatmeal cookie recipe for him They were good, but not as yummy once they cooled down.
Loving my pregnancy pillow- He actually helps me make the bed in the morning by handing me the pillows, but this day he thought this would be more fun.
William's favorite breakfast lately, although I can no longer get away with making and freezing them. He prefers them "fresh." Ugh - so high maintenance!
Shell Beach: Central Coast Trip
Garrett had his first off-site meeting with the Kern plant (With Modesto we would always go to South Lake Tahoe, which was also nice) which was hosted in Shell beach. In case you're like me and have no idea where that is, it's right next to Pismo and Avila beach which are all in the San Luis Obispo area. Some people even went wine tasting in Paso Robles. We had this really great suite with a view of the ocean, and William loved hanging out the balcony. There were lots of birds and other things for him to check out. It was really nice.
California coast sunset during dinner :)
I hate using the hotel cribs, but since we were headed to the bay area right after Garrett's work dinner, I didn't want to take up any extra trunk space with our own pac n play. This crib looks like a little baby jail, who knows if it's still even safe, ha...still, it did it's job.
Frito's gift bag (aka the devil) and some complementary wine. I contemplated opening the bottle for a second since our son's name was on it....was it God giving me a free pass?? Probably not.
While Garrett was in "meetings" aka playing golf, William and I went to Avila beach which was really cute. They had lots of fun shops and restaurants, but more importantly they had some great play areas right on the beach. He loved it!
Taking a family stroll at our resorts' trail down to the beach. William loved running around on the sand and chasing dogs...I seriously could not keep up. Garrett had to run after him!
Headed back to the room, wearing his hat like Daddy.
William's Playlist on Youtube link:
The first two are older videos, the rest are videos from all the above events :)
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